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they learned if their visits were propitiously timed.
Tydvil, who had tested her carefully, knew that she would correct lapses
of English in his dictation, and that she knew how to keep silent in
matters where silence was golden. She remembered nothing which she
should forget and forgot nothing she should remember. Their relations
were entirely impersonal. To him, she was a perfect instrument for his
business needs. No one ever knew what Geraldine thought of Tydvil.
On the morning of the revolution, Geraldine arrived on the stroke of
nine. In the inner office she spent a few moments patting a helmet of
hair, more red than gold, into order. Systematically she surveyed the
great oaken desk, saw the date stamp had been altered, straightened the
wide blotting pad and glanced over, the pen stand. Then she opened one
of the two office safes, and took from it two basket of papers, one of
which she placed on either side of the blotting pad. Satisfied that all
was well, she seated herself opposite the leather padded chair for the
first work of the day.
There was a long pause until she heard the sound of hasty steps
approaching. A junior hurried in bearing a large bag, from which he sent
an avalanche of letters on to the table in front of Geraldine. As the
boy turned away, she halted him with a peremptory “Stop!”
He looked at her uneasily. “Listen, Jimmy,” she said decisively, “this
is the third time in a fortnight you have kept me waiting. If it happens
again you’ll be hunting another job—understand?” She cut short a glib
explanation with, “No good, Jimmy! I’ve heard that yarn better told by a
procession of your predecessors. Your job is to have the mail on this
table at nine. Chase yourself!” The boy fled. With the deftness of long
practice, Geraldine sorted the letters into piles. Some few she passed
untouched to the blotting pad opposite. Then, taking a long, pliant
blade, she swiftly cut envelope after envelope along three sides,
leaving the contents undisturbed. As she cut them she stacked them
neatly at her right hand.
She was so intent on her work, that the new-corner who had entered
quietly, had ample time to enjoy the picture she made before a movement
on his part impelled her to turn. The slight frown at the interruption
changed to a smile as he walked round the table and, without ceremony,
seated himself in the chair sacred to Tydvil Jones.
After the first glance, the girl had turned to her work again without
speaking. The man watched her for a while as one who gazed on something
worth seeing. Presently he said, with mock ceremony, “Good morning,
Geraldine.”
Without pausing to look up, she said quietly, “Good morning, Mr.
Brewer.” There was just enough emphasis on the prefix to convey a
rebuke.
The man smiled. “My name, Geraldine, happens to be William, but it’s
generally Billy.”
“And mine,” the girl retorted, “happens to be Miss Brand. I wish you
would remember it.’
“I’ve a shocking memory,” pleaded Billy, “and Geraldine is about the
only name I think of.”
The letters passed swiftly through the slender white hands to the
zip-zip-zip of the flying blade. If she had noticed what he said, she
gave no sign. Brewer was silent, content in looking at her. Presently
she glanced up. “Do you realize that you are occupying Mr. Jones’s
chair, and that he is likely to be in at any moment; and also,”—she
paused to draw a fresh pile of letters towards her—“you have no
business in this room whatever.”
Billy looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. “Oh! That one so lovely
should be so false.” He chuckled. “Tyddie will not be here for another
thirty-five minutes, as you know better than I do. I consider looking at
you to be most important business. As for the chair, it fits me
admirably. So much for your objections to my presence.”
The girl gave a light laugh. “God gie us a guid conceit o’ orselves.
You’re not nearly big enough to fit that chair comfortably, Mr. Billy
Brewer.”
“If you would admit how extremely capable I am, you would not have said
that. However, Geraldine, your attempt to hurt my feelings has failed.
Flopped! My pride remains uninjured.”
“I don’t flatter myself that anything I could say would shake your
colossal self-conceit,” she retorted.
Billy laughed heartily. “It is not often you are really complimentary,
Geraldine…”
“Miss Brand,” she interrupted sharply.
“Geraldine,” he continued unmoved, “but when you are you make a man
blush.”
“You blush!” she said scornfully. “The fact is that you think because
you are easily the best salesman in the city—I grant you that…”
“Please don’t!” he protested. “You make me feel dizzy.”
“You are an ass,” she said dispassionately. “Because no buyer, man or
woman, can resist your insidious influence, you think you are big enough
to run C. B. & D. But you’re not, my friend, not by miles.”
“Would that you were a buyer, Geraldine,” he said, grinning
provocatively and leaning towards her. She prodded at him with the paper
knife and returned to her letters.
“Perhaps,” she said presently, “you think you should be offered a
partnership.”
“Would you accept a partnership if it were offered to you?” he asked,
smiling.
“Rather!” she replied incautiously.
“Hooray!” he exclaimed. “Then I do offer you one. Let us go into
partnership as Brewer and Brand, doing business under the style of
William Brewer—unlimited.”
Geraldine placed the last of the letters together and leaned back in her
chair. Unabashed at the suggestion, she met his eyes steadily. For
months there had been this sparring between them. The girl knew he was
in earnest. Worse still, she had reached a stage where she scarcely
cared to analyse her own feelings. She looked at him reflectively before
speaking, and then said deliberately, “Indeed, and how many sleeping
partners would there be in the firm?” There was no mistaking the
intention or the innuendo. Billy flushed under her unwavering eyes, and
tried to pass it off with a jest.
“Really, Geraldine, you shock me,” he said, half laughing. “If I am
dumb, I am not deaf,” she went on. “You’re not dumb, Geraldine, I’ll
swear you’re not. I heard you speak most distinctly just now.”
“You think,” she took up the tale, “that because people make no comment
to you, that they are blind to the habits and customs of Mr. William
Brewer. You might just as well disabuse your mind of the idea. I believe
in saying what I think.”
“Yes,” he broke in, “I have noticed that.”
She went on without noticing the interruption. “And I’m not blind to the
fact that you have seen fit to give me the benefit of a good deal of
your society lately. If a fraction of what is said about you is true, if
you have any regard for a girl, you can show it best by keeping away
from her.”
Billy whistled softly. “Your hand is not nearly as light as it looks,”
he said. “However, I suppose none of my kind friends has told you that I
have cut out all that sort of thing these many moons.” He paused. “Just
because I realised what you have just told me. Give me a chance,” he
pleaded, and his voice was very soft.
She shook her head and stood up. “Billy Brewer, you have been a very bad
boy, and I’d want to be very sure of you before I gave you a chance.”
“If you were sure?” he asked.
For the first time, her eyes fell. “Prove to me that I can be sure.”
She bent to pick up the letters from the table as he moved round beside
her. Then, thinking that direct action might succeed where persuasion
failed, Billy Brewer made a false move. As she bent, he swiftly flung an
arm round her, pinning her arms to her side. Instantly she straightened
and half turned. Billy took a complete tactical advantage of the
unguarded lips.
With a little cry, she wrenched her arm free. As she did so, a strange
thing happened. Brewer released her suddenly and stood with his eyes
fixed on some object over her shoulder.
Blind with anger, Geraldine did not notice the change in Billy’s
attitude. “You brute! You utter brute!” she gasped, and, with all her
force, she struck him in the face with her clenched hand. It was an
active tennis and golf hand, and Geraldine struck to make her mark—and
did. Three times that hand landed on the same spot before Geraldine
awoke to the fact that Billy was staring over her shoulder, and made no
effort to defend himself. He might have been cast in bronze for all the
notice he took of her enthusiastic assault.
Then she, too, turned, and herself became frozen into one of a group.
For, there in the doorway surveying the scene, stood Tydvil Jones. Aye!
Tydvil, who by his self made laws, should not have arrived for another
twenty minutes, at the earliest.
It would be difficult to say which of the three was the most astounded
by the episode. It was Tydvil, however, who first recovered himself.
“If, Mr. Brewer, you have all you needed, there is no reason for you to
wait.” The freezing politeness of the words matched his manner. He stood
aside, holding the door open for the exit of the culprit. And—Mr.
Brewer went, but not gracefully. The flushed girl waited beside her
chair as Tydvil hung up his coat and hat. He took his seat and motioned
her to hers. As she sat down, Geraldine stammered, “Oh, Mr. Jones—I—
I.”
He held up his hand. “I think, Miss Brand, that unless you particularly
wish to discuss the—er—episode, which, I have no doubt, was
extremely distasteful to you, we will not refer to it—for the present,
at any rate. Let us get to our mail first.”
Geraldine murmured her thanks, and passed the piled letters across the
table. In a few minutes they were deep in work. Long practice and a
complete understanding of his methods made words almost unnecessary
between them. Papers passed to and fro almost in silence. Occasionally
he paused to give her a note to be brought before him later. In a
remarkably short space of time, the piled letters vanished, leaving only
those that required his personal attention. As she took the last letter
from his hand, she picked up her pencil. “Ready?” he asked. The girl
nodded assent.
“First,” he said, “I wish you to look through all of the morning papers
for a paragraph similar to this.” He passed her a cutting. “Then send
this note to the editor of each paper in which it appears. I want this
done at once, and sent out by special messenger.”
“To the editor.—Sir, my attention has been drawn to a paragraph in your
columns this morning which stated that I have offered a gift of one
thousand pounds to the funds of the Moral Uplift Society. I would be
pleased if you would give similar publicity to my personal statement
that I did not make any offer of the kind. Further, I would like it to
be clearly understood that I do not intend in future to make any
contributions to the society mentioned.”
Tydvil paused, and said smilingly, “What happens when one burns one’s
boats, Miss Brand?”
Geraldine glanced up from her note-book. “I suppose you stay where you
are, or swim home.”
“Exactly,” he
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